Minutes - Environmental Advisory - July 2, 2008 CITY OF BOULDER, COLORADO
BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS MEETING SUMMARY
NAME OF BOARD/COMMISSION: Environmental Advisory Board
DATE OF MEETING: July 2, 2008
NAME/TELEPHONE OF PERSON PREPARING SUMMARY: Kelle Karp, 303-441-1940
NAMES OF MEMBERS, STAFF AND INVITED GUESTS PRESENT:
Environmental Advisory Board Members Present: Brian Vickers, Bill Roettker, Francoise
Poinsatte ,and Suzanne Jones
Board Members Absent: Leah Kukowski Martinsson
Staff Members Present: Jonathan Koehn, Office of Environmental Affairs
Public Present: None
OUTLINE OF AGENDA
1. CALL TO ORDER. The meeting was called to order at 6:08 p.m. by chair Francoise Poinsatte
2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES. June's meeting minutes were unanimously approved.
3. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION. None
4. UPDATE. Suzanne Jones attended the Greenways Advisory Commission (GAC) meeting as a
representative of EAB. She informed the rest of the Board that the GAC approved the Capitol
Improvement Project (CIP) for the next 5 years, which includes operating expenses for the Greenways
program. The program receives $450,000 each year from transportation, the lottery and flood control
funds, and they work in collaboration with transportation to improve habitat along side the road.
Goose Creek is this summer's habitat improvement project. The GAC also assisted in refining the
Greenways program budget to accommodate for salaries and raises, as well as illustrate distinctions
between funds that rolled over from previous years and funds that are appropriated each year. Finally,
the GAC discussed the scale of potential projects, helping to distinguish between big projects, small
projects and multi year projects. One barrier to the Greenways program in accomplishing projects is
the turnover of seasonal staff. Therefore, the goal is to hire a permanent employee that will oversee the
seasonal staff and ensure continuity of restoration projects from season to season. Funding for this
position will come from a few different departments. GAC approved this additional staff member
given that the position remains overseen in Greenways and does not become a Utility position.
Jonathan informed the Board that OEA works with Greenways staff to determine if there are
collaboration opportunities. Suzanne further indicated that Open Space also has projects that they
want to partner on with Greenways, and that there are opportunities for collaboration.
Jonathan updated the Board on the Climate Action Plan (CAP), Green Building, and city solar projects.
With respect to CAP, there are two items staff is moving quickly to take back to council (1) the
potential increase to the CAP tax, and (2) creating an additional longer term more aggressive
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction goal. CAP staff is currently in the process of evaluating the CAP
Work Plan. This is important because it is a guiding document and we know more now than we did
when it was first laid out. Part of evolving the action plan is to examine the current programs, develop
metrics on everything being done to adequately determine the best return on investment, and define
what investment and return actually mean. Staff is writing a WIP for council for submission in the
next two weeks. The WIP addresses council's questions asked at April's study session, and highlights
two upcoming agenda items (discussing the CAP tax and longer term GHG goals). Staff intends to
bring these two agenda items to the Board before they go to council. Staff just submitted the 2009
budget, and it included much discussion about how to accelerate CAP programs and increase GHG
reduction goals. Staff decided to not ask for a CAP tax increase for the 2009 budget as they want to
et conclusions on the ro ram evaluations so the can be more thou htful about what increased
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Francoise Poinsa e, Chair Date
funding will achieve. Staff will seek the input of the CAP advisory group, and consider asking for an
increase in the first quarter of 2009. Furthermore, staff is leveraging current funds with grant funding
from EPA, GEO and Boulder County. Leveraging of private funds does not always come in the form
of grants but is the outcome of the energy audits and what businesses and residents are spending on
their own to make energy efficiency improvements.
With respect to longer term more aggressive GHG reduction goals, staff is currently meeting with
other groups that established longer term goals and are getting advice and perspective. Staff believes it
is important to find a middle ground as being too aggressive may require a lot of policy work and
legislation. Staff intends to have a proposal ready for council in September. Also; staff is partnering
with Jim Logan on the Boulder Energy Project. From this partnership, staff intends to determine the
biggest sector which needs to be addressed. For example, houses built between 1960 and 1964 versus
houses built in the 1980's. Addressing the biggest sector will include an energy audit, contracting
services and a financial package to assist with implementing the needed changes. The Board indicated
their support for collaborating on this project as it takes a more proactive approach rather than reactive.
Jonathan concluded the CAP update by informing the Board that staff sees the financial package as a
critical piece, and consultants are finalizing their analysis of the financing models, which are similar to
what the county is also working on. Finally, staff wants to make sure they offer the best financial
model and that it does not compete with local lending institutions should they want to participate. As a
final point, the Board suggested a 3 tiered modeling approach so that people see that they can at ]east
do something.
For the second update, Jonathan thanked the Board for their input on the Green Building work plan
presented at last month's meeting. Staff is working to implement all the recommended comments and
changes, and will bring it back to the Board before taking it to council. In total, OEA staff will be
submitting three WIP's to council: CAP Analysis, Transportation, and Green codes.
Far the final update, Jonathan informed the Board that the city plans to break ground on the 1 mega-
watt Wastewater Treatment Plant solar project in August. Also staff has been working with a
consultant to explore the financing bamers for the solar garden idea. Lastly, a l OkW system will be
installed at Reynolds library in the next couple of weeks, and we just wrapped up the RFP and bid
process for installing donated solar systems on the Municipal building and Park Central building, and
evaluating all city facilities for solar capacity.
5. MAIN AGENDA ITEMS. Jonathan asked the Board for their input in the existing Integrated Pest
Management (IPM) policy and ordinance pertaining specifically to the public notification period, the
existing moratorium at Boulder Creek and the Municipal building, and how to best use the Scientific
Advisory Board (SAB) for IPM matters. With respect to the notification period, there was an incident
last year with the community in which certain residents felt they were no[ given enough notice for a
spraying event at Foothills Park even though staff followed the IPM policy procedures. In this case,
staff held a public meeting in April to discuss the anticipated spraying for the summer and then posted
signs three days in advance of the actual spraying event (staff is only required to post signs 24 hours in
advance). The community responded by speaking at a city council meeting and at the park on the day
of spraying. The Board suggested that staff post detailed signs at city parks that are sprayed indicating
that every April a public meeting is held to discuss the summer's anticipated spraying schedule. This
way the community is given ample notice of the public meeting and can express their concerns to staff
then as opposed to the day of the spraying event. The Board suggested amending the public
notification period to 3 days instead of 24 hours. Moving on, Jonathan explained to the Board that the
moratorium at Boulder Creek and the Municipal Building was a temporary suggestion from the IPM
task force until they agreed upon an approved chemical list, but the task force never removed the
moratorium. The Board agreed that since no one is requesting that the moratorium be appealed that it
should stay in place. The Board then inquired about expanding it to other public place areas. Jonathan
indicated that ex andin it would affect how the ci maintains its arks, and that would re uire further
Approved:
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Francoise Poinsatte, Chair Date
explanation of why a moratorium is necessary in that area. On the topic of SAB, the Board supports
the notion that the SAB are in a good position to help establish where and when pesticide and herbicide
spraying is necessary. Overall, the Board did not see reason to make changes to the current IPM policy
or ordinance. They did, however, indicate that staff needs to resume creating annual reports that
include an herbicide evaluation matrix, and once those are back in motion then the Board may be able
to better determine if changes to the policy and/or ordinance are necessary to ensure that we are
meeting the goal of using the least amount of toxic chemicals possible. The Board also suggested
ensuring that the new IPM coordinator knows that i[ will be in their work plan to generate annual
reports and matrices. In conclusion, Jonathan informed the Board that we are doing well with respect
to West Nile Virus (WNV). WNV is a 5 year trend and we are on the down slope of this trend, where
we peaked in 2003. We observed decreases in 2007 and this year we are doing better than 2007. Two
cases of WNV were reported in Boulder County, but it is hard to know where they were actually
contracted. The city still only controls mosquitoes at larval sites using Bti, but the county will spray
for adults if they get complaints from the community. The Board requested that they be included in
the weekly WNV report that goes to council.
6. MATTERS FROM STAFF. None
7. MATTERS FROM THE BOARD. The Board reiterated their desire to have the chair meet with
Jonathan mid month to help finalize upcoming agendas. Jonathan said he will contact Francoise to set
up appointments for the rest of the year. The Board decided on a tentative agenda for meetings August
through October (August: Green Building Matrix & Valmont Butte, September: CAP tax & goals, and
October: Transit Village). The Board agreed that they need to revisit the calendar at each meeting, and
asked staff to send it out with each meeting's materials.
8. ADJOURNMENT. The meeting adjourned at 8:09 p.m.
9. TIME & LOCATION OF NEXT MEETING: Wednesday, August 13, 2008, 1300 Canyon Blvd,
6 .m.
Approved:
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Francoise Pomsatte, Chtair Dat---_-~~